The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal rejected 10 out of the 13 witnesses presented by the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi.
Justice Haruna Tsammani stated this on Wednesday while delivering judgment on the petition filed by Obi and his party to challenge the election of President Bola Tinubu.
Peter Obi had called 13 witnesses (PW1 to PW13) to testify in the election petition, however, only three out of the 13 had their witness statements on oath filed along with the petition.
Justice Tsammani referred to section 285 of the Nigerian constitution and section 137(7) of the Electoral Act 2022, which require that every witness statement on oath must be filed along with the petition.
He emphasized that according to the Supreme Court authority, once the 21-day window for filing an election petition has elapsed, the content of the petition cannot be amended, which was why the witness statements on oath of the 10 witnesses were not competent and could not be recognised by the court.
He said the petitioners were aware of the legal provision relating to the filing of witness statements on oath yet went ahead to present 10 witnesses without their witness statements on oath earlier filed with the petition.
Therefore, the Court rejected the exhibits tendered by the affected 10 witnesses.
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